I sleep for almost four whole hours. When I wake up, it's getting dark out, and I feel a little better about what happened earlier. I was stupid enough to make a mistake that almost cost me my life, and Tobe's, and I won't let it happen again. I can't afford to if I want to survive in this new world. When I wake up, I stretch until my back cracks, and then head out into the living room. Reese, Ryder, and Tobe are all sitting at the dining room table with a deck of cards. They're playing poker and are using stale pretzels as money. Tobe smiles when she sees me. "Should we deal you in?" I smile. "Sure, I haven't played poker in ages." I take a seat across from Reese, and Tobe slides some cards towards me along with a pile of pretzels. I do a quick count. Twenty of them won't last me very long, so I play it as safe as possible. It takes me almost forty minutes to even out my pretzels with the others, and then I slowly pull

Ryder nudges me, and I raise my own gun, just in case. The man takes the gun from Ryder, and turns away from us. He takes aim at his wife's head, but the gun is trembling so badly I know he won't hit her if he pulls the trigger. He takes a few deep breaths to calm himself, and then tries again.With one last shuddering breath, he turns the gun around, sticks the end in his mouth, and pulls the trigger. The back of his head explodes, coating us in blood and skull fragments, and I scream as the man drops to the ground, missing half of his face. I'm still screaming when Ryder takes the gun from him and shoots his wife.When he turns to me, all I can see is the man's blood that coats Ryder's shirt and arms, and then I look down at myself. Bits of blood, brain matter, and bone coat my clothes. I slap at my arms, trying to scrape everything away, trying not to see it as I do. Right now, I don't want to think about what's sticking to me and soaking into the carpet, I just want to clean mysel

Tobe shakes me away some time later, and when I open my eyes, I notice that it's barely light out. She puts her finger to her lips, nods to Reese's still sleeping form, and drags me from the couch as quietly as possible. She looks terrible with her un-brushed hair and her crumpled clothes, but she looks excited about something.She shuts the door to our room behind us, and forces me to sit on one of the twin-sized beds. I sigh, "Tobe, what are you doing? It's so early," I complain, covering a yawn.She shushes me, and starts to dig around in one of the three white bags against the wall. It looks like they're filled with new clothes, and I groan. "You did not get me up this early to show me a new pair of jeans, did you? If you did, you're gonna pay.""No, I do not want to show you a new pair of jeans," she says. "Aha! Found it."She pulls a sundress from one of the bags and holds it up for me to see. It's a sky blue color, sleeveless, and it has white flowers all over it. The dress isn

 "Ryder, I care about you. More than I ever have before about someone. More than I probably should, especially considering the situation we're in, but I can't help it. I can't explain why I don't feel the same way about Reese as I do about you. I can't explain why I'm drawn to you the way I am. It's just the way I feel." "Sam, Reese is my little brother, and I know he likes you. I can't hurt him. I have a problem with being into a girl that he likes." "You know, you didn't seem to have a problem with it last night when you asked me to dance! You almost kissed me, and you would have if Reese hadn't interrupted." He frowns again. "I shouldn't have; I don't know what the hell I was thinking. But don't worry, because it won't happen again. We need to keep our heads clear, and we need to focus on surviving, not stupid feelings that'll probably go away in a few days or so." I flinch, and turn

The bullets riddle the side of the house, and Ryder and Reese both duck down, flattening their bodies to the ground. Tobe and I join them, squishing our bodies as flat as they can go, and we simply wait for this all to be over with. When the bullets cease, Ryder gets up and begins shooting again. but this time, his eyes widen, and he throws himself down to the ground just as a fiery bomb explodes ten feet to our left. The front door bursts into flame, and the flames begin creeping slowly along the windowsill and up to the ceiling. "What the hell just happened?" Tobe shrieks, staring at the growing flames with a deer-in-the-headlights expression on her face. "Molotov cocktail. They've got more prepared. This place is gonna be completely engulfed in flames soon, and we can't stay here. Head for the back door, and we'll circle around through the trees and make our way to the boat." Reese shoves me and Tobe toward the back d